Just to cap off your Sunday, Amanda Marcotte dissects how the Christian Right manufactures its delusion of persecution, taking a look at the Academy Award nominated song from a movie no one saw that got its nomination yanked because the composer was openly campaigning for his song. But here is the basic framework of how the persecution gets manufactured:

Inevitably, then, the temptation to fudge starts to seep in, to exaggerate slights or invent paranoid conspiracy theories about how not getting enough praise and accolades for being Christian is an attempt to shove them out. But when that doesn’t work, well, sometimes it helps to deliberately provoke a situation where someone pretty much has to confront you, so that you can lie and say it’s because you’re a Christian. Indeed, it’s starting to become a pattern that goes something like this:

1) Enter into a community that is, by its nature, inclusive of people of various faiths and beliefs.

2) Break some common rule everyone is expected to follow.

3) Get corrected or punished for breaking the rule.

4) Squeal about how it’s because you’re a Christian and they’re bigots and oppressors.

5) By the time the truth gets out, your story will be an urban legend spread far and wide, and your fellow conservative Christians will never really know the facts.

So Christine Dunning has a new job with the county just 2 weeks after starting her previous new job. She is now making $107,000 instead of the $62,000 she made before, in addition to the annual $70,000 she will receive as her pension. Can’t blame Dunning. She’s just playing the game (and winning).

When will TNJ start digging to find out how long ago this little transition was planned and how exactly it came about? And does the county have any kind of rule preventing employees from being promoted until they’ve been in their current position for a length of time (say, 6 months)?

Given the closeness of his family, Biden’s slow pace in deciding on a presidential campaign may indicate the depth of his concerns about Beau’s health.

And give Dunning some credit. Two years ago, she was locked in at the WPD, having been passed over for promotions given to junior officers and anticipated four years under a mayor who was committed to going outside to find his next chief. She told him not to, convinced him that she could do the job and — well, so what if she couldn’t stop the shootings any more than any of her predecessors — she got out with a fat pension and a safer job that probably has about half the stress.
Good for her.